Thankful.

The last 7 days have been a whirlwind of activity. We celebrated Richard's birthday, had 2 surprise guests for sleepovers, I hosted a baby shower for my sweet friend and then two days later a dinner party for 7 people.
Phew!

I feel like I've fulfilled my quota for cooking, cleaning, and doing dishes for the rest of the year already.

But it was so much fun! I want to take a moment and be grateful for this life I have. It is full. Full of people I care about, and people who care about me. It is unpredictable, sometimes crazy, sometimes a bit boring; but it's the life I want to live. I'm happy.

It wouldn't be possible without my social, outgoing, hospitable husband. He draws in most of the visitors we get. He invites them, I make it happen with fresh sheets, food, and drink. We both couldn't do it without each other. We truly need each other. Without him we wouldn't have so many guests; without me, they would get store-bought potato salad and some sort of meat drenched in barbecue sauce. Always. And no fresh sheets. Ever!

Right now I'm sitting outside on our (clean) deck (just needed to point that out onemoretime), it's 32 degrees Celsius in the shade. Summer is all around us! The ducks are quacking, Sheila is barking in the back, and the birds are chirping. Some sort of flower is giving off the most amazing scent.
I'm sitting here doing what I love, which is documenting this moment so I will never forget it; Rich is outside feeding his animals which gives him his own very special satisfaction.

Tomorrow is Canada Day, which is special to me because Canada has become my home and I'm very proud and thankful to be able to live here.

Life is good.

Have a happy Canada day!

xo Miriam

Pink party

Yesterday I hosted a shower for my sweet friend's adorable babygirl. She is 6 weeks old and way too cute!
We had (virgin) Mojitos, yummy food, and lots of pink! It was great fun.
Thanks for coming everyone!

Happy long weekend! Canada day weekend here and 4th of July coming up for you peeps south of the border.
Have a fun and relaxing weekend!

xo Miriam

Summer celebrations

Phew, the last few days have been crazy! (Well, crazy for me at least - I usually work and hang out on the farm and that's pretty much it.)
Let me break it down:

Saturday
I went to a friend's summer solstice party. Below: the outfit. Please pay particular attention to the hair - I straightened it! All by myself! Since I'm severely challenged when it comes to hair styling, this alone was cause for celebration.

It had been cloudy and rainy all day, and then right at five when the party started - bam, sunshine! Awesome. We had a delicious BBQ, cool drinks, met new people, shared a few laughs. Good times!

A friend and I also stole away for an hour for a nice long walk and chat, checking out the moon action (I think it was a full moon - fullish for sure).

 

 

Sunday

After I came home from work (I worked in between parties! *pat myself on the back*), we got ready to go to the second event of the weekend: the housewarming of a work colleague. We spent a fun couple of hours there, admiring their amazing new house and munching on appetizers, then we dashed off to Richard's (pre-)birthday dinner.

A Schnitzel and Thai chicken later, we headed to - oh, anyone who even remotely knows Richard will have guessed it already - the legion.



We had a birthday drink, danced a bit to the country music band (not great, but not too shabby either), and then called it a day.

 

Monday:

The actual birthday. And a day off! Double whammy awesomeness.

It was a day filled with cleaning (I scrubbed the bathtub to a shine and cleaned out the fridge - you all know how satisfying that is, right?? Felt so proud!), cooking, and birthday celebration. Which in our case obviously included strawberry pie and a roaring campfire. Which we started in the rain, optimistically hoping that the rain would stop. And it did! (Surprise twist there hehe.)

Richard's friend Daniel came and stayed the night (well, actually two nights, more to that in a bit), and we all got very merry. It was an awesome birthday night!! 



Birthday boy

I have no idea how I did this, but I dig the fire between them.

Strawberry pie

 Cuddles with Dancer

A couple of farmers with a couple of dogs

 Celebration fire



 

Tuesday:

The morning after. You all know how that one goes. Slow.

Leisurely breakfast, lots of talking. Which resulted in Daniel missing his bus so he ended up staying another night.

It was a crazy morning: People dropping in left, right and centre, dropping off chickens and guinea pigs. Lots of tea and coffee was consumed. More chattering.

Then another surprise guest came, a friend from Cranbrook, staying the night as well.

 

It was a crazy three days, but oh so lovely. Really enjoyed having all these houseguests.

We had great, uplifting, inspiring conversations. Looking at things from a fresh, different perspective.

Thanks for the visit friends!

 Empty beds, our houseguests are gone.

 

 

xo Miriam

 

Birthday hubby

It's my man's birthday! We have been together for over 10 years, so I made him a photo book about our love story. Sadly, there are very few pictures from our first few years, we both didn't take many (and I'm regretting it so much!), but there are still a few that remind us of the first few tumultuous, equally happy and difficult years.
Happy Birthday my love!

I used snapfish for my photobook, and I couldn't be happier. It was easy to use, the quality is awesome, and the delivery was really fast. Hey snapfish, do you need a spokeswoman? If you do, I'm your girl!
Here are a few pages from the book:

 

So many great memories! I can't wait to make more.

Happy Monday everybody!

 

xo Miriam



The Naked Dream

Last night I had the naked dream - again.
I dream about it all.the.frickin.time and find it kinda disturbing. And annoying. They are all similar, but here is last night's version:
I'm back in the little village where I grew up, visiting my parents. My mom sends me to the butcher's shop to get some sliced ham. So far so good, all the clothes are still in place. Now I'm walking down the main street, and - bam! - top and bra are gone. I still wear my pants (thank God for small favours!) but am topless.

source
At least I'm still wearing pants in this dream , but I went commando in previous ones.

Strangely enough I'm not too perturbed by it and enter the butcher's shop. (It's a real-life shop where I used to go all the time when I was younger.)
The ladies there are happy to see me, ask how I'm doing while they slice my ham, even give me a slice to eat right away like in the old days - while I'm still naked from the waist up!! Breasts gently swaying in the wind. It's too bizarre. Why do I have the Naked Dream all the time?

To get to the bottom of this I did what every sensible person would do: I googled "dream interpretation".

Here is what they are telling me:

"Often times, when you realize that you are naked in your dream, no one else seems to notice. Everyone else in the dream is going about their business without giving a second look at your nakedness. If this happens in your dream, then it implies that your fears are unfounded; no one will notice except you. You may be magnifying the situation and making an issue of nothing."

Hold on, are you telling me it's all in my head? I'm making a big deal out of nothing? A mountain out of a molehill? Me?? (Who are these dream interpreters and why do they know me so well?)

"If you dream that you are proud of your nakedness and show no embarrassment or shame, then it symbolizes your unrestricted freedom. You have nothing to hide and are proud of who you are. The dream is about a new sense of honesty, openness, and a carefree nature. Perhaps you are trying to get to the 'bare facts'. Alternatively, the dream may be telling you that you are drawing the wrong kind of attention to yourself. You want to get noticed, but are going about it the wrong way."

Hm. I like the bit about trying to get to the 'bare facts', because that's a quest I'm on right now. Discovering realness in a fake(ish) world!
And being proud of who you are? We should all strive for that. On good days (make that very good days) I'm almost there... but on average or bad days? Nope. There is a lot of room for improvement.

I don't like the last bit at all (hitting too close to home? Am I blogging to get attention? Is it the wrong way??), so I will disregard it on the spot.

Yep. Let's go with the honesty, openness and carefree nature!
Way to go Naked Dream!

source
By the way, this is my future hair-do.

 What are some of your weird dreams?

xo Miriam

10 things I love about summer

Tomorrow is officially the first day of summer! Weee!!
Unfortunately, it is raining today and also supposed to rain tomorrow. But that's no reason not to celebrate it anyway!

Lately I have seen these lists pop up all over the internet about what people love about summer. Fun! I decided to join in and present to you my own list. I love summer so that one was easy!

In no particular order:

1.Painted toenails and sandals

 

2. Blue skies and fluffy white clouds



 

3. Sunbathing in the backyard 

 

 4. Peacock amidst flowering bushes and green trees

 5. Summer cocktails

6. Doing cartwheels

 
7. Frozen treats

 

 

8. Going camping



 

9. Campfires (obviously)

 10. Watching the sun transform my baby into a sparkling otherworldly creature   

 

What do you love about summer?

xo Miriam